"H-hell?"
He said, or at least tried to, but all that came out was an unintelligible grugle that sounded nothing human.
Realizing this, he froze, slowly realizing that he had also hatched from one of those eggs making it impossible that he'd remain human.
Hesitantly, he looked down and noticed that his hands were anything but a human's.
The skin on his arms were a dull, dark gray, rough like hardened stone yet strangely flexible when he moved.
His fingers themselves were longer than they should have been, tipped with thin, black claws that curved slightly inward.
Those were definitely not for gently grabbing on to stuff.
"...What the hell did I turn into?"
The words came out as another guttural sound, something that seemed to be a mix between a growl and a gurgle.
He grimaced.
Great, not only was he apparently a demon… he couldn't even speak properly.
Well, he was a lot calmer about this than he expected....not that he expected to become a demon in the first place.
But now that he was one, might as well just accept it right?
Twitch
Ah right, there was one thing that he had been ignoring all this while.
The fifth limb he felt earlier, he didn't know what it was, but right now, he was pretty sure of it, especially after he saw the other hatchlings.
He had a tail.
He slowly twisted his body, glancing behind himself to confirm it.
Sure enough, a long, thin tail lazily swayed behind him, its tip ending in a small sharp spike.
The moment he focused on it, it twitched again, almost as if it had a will of its own.
"...."
Crack!
He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard more cracks around him. That's right, the others were still hatching.
He lifted his head and noticed that the amount of little demons around him had doubled.
He wasn't sure of what they were supposed to be doing or if they were also previously humans turned demons.
But his answer soon came when an egg bigger than most here suddenly hatched.
From it came an even bigger demon.... at least relative to his and the other demon's size.
The new demon didn't waste a second, as it suddenly turned to the intact egg that was close to it and slammed its clawed hand into it.
It then proceeded to rip the shell open, exposing the half-formed hatchling inside.
The creature within twitched weakly, its small limbs barely developed as it floated in the thick membrane.
The larger demon didn't hesitate for a second, it grabbed the helpless hatchling and sank its sharp teeth straight into it.
A wet tearing sound followed.
He froze.
For a moment, his mind simply refused to process what he was seeing.
The newborn demon's teeth tore into the unhatched one like a starving animal, devouring chunks of flesh with large bites.
Thick dark blood spilled across the broken shell as the creature feasted.
As if a domino waiting for the first piece to fall, all the other smaller demons rushed towards the eggs by their sides, breaking it and immediately feasting on their kin.
It was a horrific sight, one that made him feel like puking, fortunately his new biology didn't allow him to.
Still, the worst was yet to come.
Soon enough, the number of eggs with demons inside started shrinking and yet, the newly hatched demons still remained hungry.
The moment the last few intact eggs were shattered, the frenzy didn't stop, if anything, it only grew worse.
The hatchlings that had been devouring the unformed demons slowly lifted their heads, their mouths and claws were drenched in dark blood.
For a brief moment, the entire field fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the sounds of the larger demon chewing.
At this point, all the other demons had their eyes on it, but none dared to make a move, that is until one of them did.
A smaller hatchling lunged at the larger demon that had started the feeding frenzy, trying to steal the unhatched it still held.
The bigger one reacted instantly.
With a snarl, it backhanded the attacker across the ground before pouncing on it.
Its claws dug into the smaller demon's chest as its jaws snapped shut around the creature's throat.
A sickening crunch echoed through the field.
And just like that...
The second massacre began.
The hatchlings threw at it, one after the other in hopes of either stealing its meal, or consuming it, besides, it was the largest source of food here, so they were bound to be satisfied after eating it.
Or at least, that was their line of thought....if they had any.
The scene was a show of pure, unfiltered savagery, so much so that even he had been affected.
The smell of blood and the sight of the large demon tearing into the smaller ones was awakening an instinct that definitely didn't belong to human him.
Feed.
It felt as if it was some sort of mental programming, one that was so powerful that it was almost impossible to ignore.
But even through it, his mind remained clear enough to allow him to think straight, after all, blindly following the instinct would just lead to his death.
So instead of rushing towards the larger demon as the others were doing, he retreated.
He backed away from the chaotic battlefield, careful not to draw attention to himself as the other hatchlings hurled themselves at the massive demon.
None of them even noticed him leave as their eyes were locked on the same prize.
Food.
He stopped behind a cluster of half-broken eggshells scattered across the ground, crouching low as he watched the carnage from a distance.
His tail twitched nervously behind him.
From here, he could see everything, and what he saw only reinforced his decision to back off.
The larger demon was Strong, extremely so in fact, every time another hatchling lunged at it, the creature tore them apart with ease.
He nervously swallowed, watching the fight unfold.
'Good thing I didn't join them,' he thought to himself.
Even with their numbers, the smaller demons were being slaughtered, one after the other.
But that was not to say they were completely useless.
Every time one of them managed to land a hit, the larger demon took a little damage and that damage quickly started accumulating.
"If I want to escape, I can only do so now," he muttered as he watched the battle rage on, with none of their attention on him.
And that was the most logical thing to do, but for some reason, his body refused to move.
Something deep within him told him that if he could just get even a single bite of that large demon, he'd grow leagues stronger.
And that instinct was a lot harder to fight against, than his hunger.
"Damn it," he muttered as he made sure he was properly hidden behind the shell, "let's fucking wait then."